Digg – BREAKING: Google Chrome Just Launched.
Ok, I am and will always be a sucker for anything shinny and new. Software is no exception (including bleeding edge mess your junk up pre-beta software). I had to try this out.
I, not unlike many geeks, spent a good part of the day monitoring http://gears.google.com/chrome/ and waiting for it not to redirect to Google’s homepage.
When I finally did see something that indicated I could download the soon to be “best browser EVAR – according to 75.92% of Diggers” then I had to deal with the site crashing both Firefox and IE. Seriously, they both would allow me to read the EULA and click “Accept and Install” but would then lock up hard and only ending the process would bring it back.
I then decided to give it a rest for a bit, reboot, and come back later.
Once it finally allowed me to install it, from a different URL http://www.google.com/chrome/, I must say I was thoroughly underwhelmed. I have got to remember to set my expectations lower and not base them off of Digg comments when it comes to stuff like this.
So here are my simple first impression Pros and Cons (I will save the more technical stuff for later).
Pros:
- Quick loading application
- Clean user interface for the most part (looks much better on Vista than XP due to the lack of candy blue window “chrome”)
- Developer tools: Element inspector, JavaScript Console, JavaScript Debugger, Task Manager
- Incognito feature built in – neat, but not new
Cons:
- Move Along, nothing new here (you can get most of these with Firefox and IE Addons)
- No Extensions (yet)
- For the sites I visit (Digg is a major one), I don’t see much “real” improvement in speed
- I still get to watch the comments on Digg slowly paint, as always
- Some sites seem to be slower
- The configuration options are sparse (again I know its beta)
- I don’t particularly like the “status bar when it chooses” feature. I want to be able to turn it on or off.
- I want/need the option to double click the tab to close it.
- Some options need a lot more polish
I know that Google is trying to change the way people use browsers and that also means the “normal” or “standard” options that other browsers currently have, but I want some of those options where I expect them to be.
Yes, I realize that this is beta stuff I am looking at, but they wanted users to look at, review, complain about, and praise it. So I did.
I will hold any lasting impressions until after I see what they do with the larger response to this beta. Good start, long way to go. For now, give it a whirl and see what You think.
